I was wondering: There is not really an economic incentive (there are exeptions of course, described in the tangleblog) to run a Full Node for the average person, which means that there won't be as much Full Nodes than in big Blockchain-Projects like Bitcoin.
But Full Nodes make the Tangle faster and better and we do not want that only big companies like Bosch run Full Nodes, because we want the Tangle to be as decentralised as possible.
Running a Full node costs money, also it has to kind of be online 24/7 to make sense and support the Tangle.
With my Trinity Wallet I also can outscource my POW to the Full Node, basically outsourcing the Tx Fee (which POW kind of is) to the Owners of the Full node.
So running a Full Node basically gives you small finacial punishments, if you just look at electrcity spent and no money coming in.
(Of course supporting the Tangle makes IOTA worth more so in the bigger picture you kind of profit from it, but considering that at one day IOTA should hopefully be quite stable and usable, private persons running a full node wont even have the "lets help this project grow" factor any more in the future.
And honestly, compared to Bitcoin: The fact that miners act in financial self interest led to this massive growth of miners, full nodes, hashrate and this very stable system.
A system that depends on the good will of Full Node Runners and a smaller niche of business will never be as big as one where the full node runners act in direct financial self intrest. Or am I wrong in my conclusion? let me know
Considering this, I wouldnt be surprised if we have to pay (very small fees probably) for renting the Full Node.
Maybe it would even support the Tangle if there was a rule, that each Full Node can only connect to a set number of users (lets say for example 1000-10000, the number can change when the users and iot grows)
Then Full Node Users would at some day start charging (Because the ones who dont charge are already full with their 1000 or 10000 allowed users) small fees for renting their node. per month of course, not per tx.
Companies like Netflix, Visa, phone companies, internet companies (if they still exist then) can maybe include Full Node support additional to their other products, making the Tangle more decentralised and getting companies from all industries in the business.
Some will say, this idea destroys the whole point of the Tangle (free Tx).
But I personally would rather charge a small monthly fee (maybe 50c per user per month, but the number of course can be any number - and with the iot the fee is muchmuchmuch smaller but the number of allowed devices per node muchmuch higher).
This would make running a full node being rewarded financially, leading to more people running a full node, leading to a better and more stable tangle.
And we still have 0 Tx fees, because you do not pay per Tx.
Also this small fee doesnt have to be paid in fiat.
It could be paid in POW for a blockchain currency like XMR or BTC giving users still the "its completely free experience, but basically rewarding runners of full nodes financially.
The Tangle won't replace all BlockchainMiningCoins in my opinion, but hey: nobody knows.
What do you guys think?
Looking forward to a discussion
Cheers,
Jan